After this, I will not be posting any more about the upcoming series of Doctor Who. The BBC in their inflate wisdom decided that trashing the previous Doctor to promote the new one was a good idea.

How Will The First Female Doctor Shake Things Up?

Ian Youngs - Entertainment And Arts Reporter, BBC News

OK, so Jodie Whittaker is the first female Doctor. Some people will probably always feel having a woman is somehow wrong, while others will have discovered a newfound interest in the Time Lord’s intergalactic exploits as a result of her appointment.

But the debate over her casting has subsided somewhat and we’re now just ready to see her in action.

The first episode will be a significant moment in British telly, but I don’t think it will take any longer for fans to get used to her than it would for any new Doctor.

Whittaker can do drama, as we’ve seen from Broadchurch and Trust Me. Her interviews have shown that she has a quirky side that all Doctors seem to require. And the trailer suggests she’ll have no trouble in whisking us on an adventure.

And what a great way to refresh a franchise, especially after four years of Peter Capaldi, who certainly wasn’t universally loved.

Assuming she’s allowed to fully showcase her qualities, it says more about the TV industry and society over the last 50 years that nobody thought of casting a woman before.

Peter Capaldi’s time as the Doctor has come under fire recently in the run-up to the new season of Doctor Who. Can it please stop? It’s unjustified.

With a new season of Doctor Who on the horizon, and more importantly a new Doctor about to take the helm, it’s understandable that everyone is getting excited. Currently, the show is on the promotional tour, letting everyone know what awaits them.

Unfortunately, amongst all of this, our most recent version of the Doctor, Peter Capaldi, has come under fire. And it’s just not right.

Being described as if he destroyed the franchise singlehandedly throughout his time as the Doctor, the new season of Doctor Who has been described by as:

“the breath of fresh air needed to revive a flagging franchise.”

“a huge improvement on Peter Capaldi and brings back some of the spirit of David Tennant and Matt Smith.”

Even the BBC, so the guys behind casting Capaldi, has been taking digs and probably delivering the worst blow of them all:

“And what a great way to refresh a franchise, especially after four years of Peter Capaldi, who certainly wasn’t universally loved."

Why on earth are people taking a dig at Capaldi? It’s far from fair.

You can’t lumber a supposedly “flagging franchise” on a single person. There are lots of reasons why a series could be going downhill. It could be the writing. It could be the other cast members. In the case of Doctor Who, the companion, the villains, the master, the list goes on and on.

It could be something completely out of the show’s control, like a change to the scheduling. Doctor Who ended up taking a year’s break during Capaldi’s era because of the FIFA World Cup and a few other sporting events. That most likely caused a blip in the popularity of the show somewhere along the line.

In all honesty, though, I don’t believe the series is “flagging” at all. I think that was just a load of nonsense.

Anyway, I digress, let’s turn our attention back to Peter Capaldi’s version of the Doctor. The BBC stated:

“after four years of Peter Capaldi, who certainly wasn’t universally loved.”

Can you please name a version of the Doctor that was universally loved? The only person I can think of who comes closest is David Tennant, and even he had fans who didn’t enjoy his version.

Christopher Eccleston’s version wasn’t universally loved, David Tennant wasn’t, and neither was Matt Smith. The BBC is technically right in what it said; it just forgot to add the other Doctors in there, making it look like Capaldi is the only one.

Comparing him to both David Tennant and Matt Smith is hardly fair as well. The two were very similar in how they portrayed the Time Lord; some fans would go as far as saying Matt Smith is a direct copy of Tennant. Churning out another Doctor who was similar just wouldn’t work. Which is why Capaldi was ideal; and if anything, his version brought back memories of the earlier versions of the Doctor.

Honestly, I could go on and on about why this is just unfair to someone who gave it his all year after year, not only on set, but off set as well. I am sure Jodi Whittaker is going to make a fabulous Doctor Who, and I cannot wait to see her on screen and my little girl especially cannot wait, but don’t go bashing Peter Capaldi. That is no way fair, and especially from you BBC, it’s just downright disrespectful.

Doctor Who: How Heaven Sent Shows That Peter Capaldi Was The Best Doctor Of The New Series

By James Aggas

Heaven Sent isn’t just one of the greatest Doctor Who stories ever made. It’s also a story that shows how brilliant Peter Capaldi was as the Doctor.

Earlier this week, we looked at how in one BBC News article, a writer claimed that Capaldi’s Doctor “certainly wasn’t universally loved”. While this is technically true of any Doctor – opinions vary, and the universe is a big place, after all – the implication was that he was less popular than other Doctors. Perhaps even that he wasn’t as great as others.

Now we all know that that’s not true. Not one bit. Especially when you look at some of Capaldi’s best performances. His intense obsession shown in Listen. The speech he gave in The Zygon Inversion. Standing up for one small community in The Doctor Falls.

But his greatest performance, as I’m sure many of us will agree, will always be Heaven Sent. Across the entire episode, he gets to show off a considerable range. Anger. Rage. Sadness. Grief. In just one episode, he portrays all of these extreme emotions and more. And, aside from a silent, moving monster, he did it with no other actors, too.

A Huge Risk

This last point is perhaps the most crucial, and a key reminder of what makes Capaldi so special. Steven Moffat specifically wrote an episode just for him to really show off what he could do. Something that hadn’t been attempted with any previous Doctor before.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, all of them have been brilliant in their own way, especially in the New Series. But Capaldi was the first Doctor where a writer felt confident enough in them to believe that they could carry an entire episode on their own.

And it was a risk that paid off. Aided by one of Steven Moffat’s strongest ever scripts, Capaldi took that bold risk and made it work. He ensured that it paid off in a big way.

More importantly, he made it his own. When you watch Heaven Sent, can you imagine Tennant or Smith making it work quite as well as Capaldi was able to? Maybe, but I doubt it. They’re both exceptional actors, but I can’t see them making a single-hander like that story work as well as Capaldi was able to. (I will admit, I can imagine Eccleston doing a good job of it, at least.)

Regardless, we hadn’t had anything like Heaven Sent before, and I doubt that we ever will again. The episode is arguably one of the most popular stories, not just of Capaldi’s era, but of the New Series at least. And that’s for quite a few strong reasons. Steven Moffat’s great script. Rachel Talalay’s excellent direction. Murray Gold’s amazing soundtrack.

But the biggest by far is Capaldi’s performance. Only he could have made that episode work as well as it did. And that’s what makes him the best Doctor of the New Series.

Glasgow gig-goers got lucky this evening as they witnessed former Doctor Who and Glaswegian actor Peter Capaldi take to the stage.

The Twelth Doctor and Oscar winner joined The Blow Monkeys to play guitar during the band's set at the Royal Concert Hall in the City Centre this evening.

The Blow Monkeys are supporting Level 42 on their UK-wide tour.

Capaldi is renowned as a good guitarist and was the lead vocalist for rock punk band The Dreamboys in the Eighties. He has more recently gained plaudits for his portrayal of Malcolm Tucker in The Thick Of It.

Carol D, who was at tonight's concert, told Glasgow Live:

"He was introduced as someone 'who is a bit of a local hero' by Dr Robert(aka Robert Howard)before his name was announced. He got a great reaction from the crowd. He came on for their final song and played guitar...he didn't sing".

Capaldi shot to fame after his appearance as Danny Oldsen in Local Hero in 1983, and has since won various awards across multiple roles.